Britney Spears is taken to hospital by ambulance

Britney Spears is taken
to hospital by ambulance

LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears was taken from her home by ambulance early Thursday and escorted to the hospital by more than a dozen police officers in cars, on motorcycles and in helicopters. A Los Angeles police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the 26-year-old pop star was being taken to the hospital to “get help.” The Los Angeles Times cited unidentified authorities who said Spears was being placed on a “mental evaluation hold.” Spears was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where her mother, Lynne, was seen leaving its psychiatric hospital at about 5:30 a.m. When asked by a throng of paparazzi and reporters whether Britney was doing all right, Lynne Spears replied, “Yeah,” before leaving in a Range Rover. Hours earlier, shortly after 1 a.m., the motorcade that pulled away from Spears’ residence was nearly the length of a football field. Along with the ambulance, it included police on nearly a dozen motorcycles and in two cruisers. Two police helicopters followed overhead.

McCartney: Reports
of surgery are false

NEW YORK — Paul McCartney says recent media reports that he had heart surgery last year are “entirely untrue.” “People are ringing and texting me saying, ‘Are you OK?”’ he writes in a posting on his newly redesigned Web site. “I hadn’t seen the report so I was puzzled by so many enquiries about my health. So I think it’s a good time to put this rumour to rest.” The 65-year-old ex-Beatle says that during a routine medical examination over a year ago, “there was a minor irregularity which I needed to have tests for and which I have now been assured is completely fine.” Recent media reports “completely distorted the story, calling it an angioplasty, which is entirely untrue, and this is why so many friends have been concerned about my health,” he writes.

Show won’t run video
of Ledger at party

NEW YORK — “Entertainment Tonight” says it won’t air a video it has acquired that shows the late Heath Ledger at a Hollywood party where drugs were apparently being taken. The syndicated magazine’s sister show, “The Insider,” aired a “preview” of the video Wednesday that showed an unidentified man apparently snorting cocaine. The show said, however, that the video does not show Ledger doing drugs.

“Out of respect for Heath Ledger’s family, ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and ‘The Insider’ have decided not to run the Heath Ledger video that has been circulating in the world media,” said a posting on the Web sites Thursday.

Ledger, 28, died in his Manhattan apartment Jan. 22. The cause of his death will likely be known within days, after medical examiners complete toxicology tests. Authorities suspect a possible drug overdose, but nothing conclusive has been determined. Several prescription drugs were found in the Manhattan apartment where the “Brokeback Mountain” actor’s body was found.

“The Insider” ran a fairly extensive “preview” of the video Wednesday. It showed Ledger in the doorway of a room in the Chateau Marmont hotel where a party was taking place. The video shows a man, his face blurred, seeming to snort cocaine from a table. Ledger said that he was “going to get serious [word bleeped] from my girlfriend” for being at the party. It also shows him rolling cigarette paper. He was heard saying “I used to smoke five joints a day for 20 years.” The show also quotes Drew Pinsky, star of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew,” saying he had seen the video and it was “heartbreaking.” Beyond the cigarette paper, the video shows Ledger taking a slug from a beer. There have been a number of media reports quoting people who said Ledger used drugs.

The Hollywood community put pressure on the syndicated programs not to air the material. Death of Max Baer Jr.’s
girlfriend called suicide

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The live-in girlfriend of former “Beverly Hillbillies” star Max Baer Jr. apparently shot herself and died several days later, authorities said Wednesday. Police were still investigating the death of 30-year-old Chere Rhodes, but no foul play is suspected, Douglas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Halsey said. Baer, 70, an entrepreneur who played “Jethro” in the 1960s “Hillbillies” series, summoned authorities to his Lake Tahoe home last Thursday after he found Rhodes with a single gunshot wound to the chest, Halsey said. “She was conscious on the scene and told [officers] that it was a self-attempted suicide,” Halsey said. “There was a suicide note as well which substantiated her statement.” He said the handwritten note cited “relationship problems.”

Today’s birthdays

Singer Don Everly is 71. Actor Garrett Morris is 71. Actor Sherman Hemsley is 70. Comedian Terry Jones is 66. Princess Stephanie of Monaco is 43. Lisa Marie Presley is 40. Comedian and actor Pauly Shore is 40. Rock musician Patrick Wilson (Weezer) is 39. Actor Michael C. Hall is 37. Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is 33. Country singer Julie Roberts is 29.